How to Sew Elastics the Right Way?

Active lifestyle demands dresses made up of such fabrics that give the freedom for easy movement. However, in most of the clothing, elastics are used for making them more workable and flexible with control over their stretchability. Not only garments, elastics are used for sewing and other craft projects too. Do you ever wonder why the elastic that you used in your last project doesn't seem to work with the present sewing project? Why the elastic in your cotton pajama is causing problems while the same elastic in your swim wear is working excellently? In fact, the type of elastics and the fabrics with which they are used plus the sewing methods, all go to contribute in the perfect working of elastics

Types of Elastics and their Construction

Elastic is a flexible and stretchable narrow fabric made of rubber core which is wrapped in polyester, cotton, nylon or a blend of fiber threads. These exterior fibers are braided, woven or knit together to give various thicknesses and widths to the elastics. Most of the elastics are 1/8" to 2 ½" wide. However, elastic thread can be much narrower and the decorative elastic waistbands can be extra wide. Different elastics have different degrees of stretchability. Elastics are sewn to fabrics in two ways- direct application and casing. In the first method, elastic is attached to fabric by sewing directly through the elastic and fabric. In the second method, the elastic is encased into a closed tunnel like fabric and then sewed to the fabric often around the waist, at the neckline or lower edge of a sleeve or pant leg.

Braided elastics are used in casings as they get narrowed when stretched. They can't retain their stretch and shape if applied directly to the fabric. These light weight elastics are mainly used on sleeve hems, swim wear and leg bands. Braided non-roll elastic is appropriate for waistbands because they can remain flat when stretched.

Knitted elastics are soft, light weight, strong and appropriate for directly applying on almost any kind of garment. These elastics can also be sewed in casing. They ares best for lightweight fabrics. Many knitted elastics also have sewing line at their edges which don’t have elastic in them. So, it becomes much easier to sew these elastics to a garment.

Woven elastics, usually thicker than the other elastics, are very strong. When sewn directly onto a fabric, they can retain their width and stretch,. Woven elastics can also be sewed in casing. They are usually applied to heavy weight fabrics, such as home furnishings, car covers, bags, accessories, etc.

Transparent or clear elastics are synthetic narrow fabrics that can stretch up to four times their length and can completely recover the original size and shape. They are made of polyurethane and does not contain rubber which makes them appropriate to be used in kids garments or for people who are allergic to latex. It is primarily used in those areas that are prone to lose stretch, such as shirt bottoms, shoulder seams and necklines. They can't be used in casings as they'll roll over themselves.

Tips for Sewing Elastics

• Choose an elastic that has the same care requirements as the finished garment.
• Use those elastics which recover their original length after stretching.
• Use cotton elastic with cotton garments. Wash the cotton fabric before sewing as the elastic will also shrink a little when washed.
• Use nylon elastic for lingerie and swim wear. They can be machine washed but dry them in medium heat.
• Polyester elastics go with almost all fabrics. They can be washed as well as dry cleaned.
• Choose such threads that are compatible with fabric.
• Use a ball-point needle when sewing.
• Adjust the thread tension when stitching and stretching elastic.
• Elastic should be tight enough to prevent fabric from drooping, but loose enough to be comfortable.
• Cut the elastic according to the required length plus 1" for finishing the ends.
• When applying elastic directly to fabric, cut it about 8% shorter than the required length. It will stretch during sewing.
• Use a long straight stitch or a zigzag stitch when sewing the elastic directly to fabric. A long stitch having length of three or four is best for most of the fabrics and elastic types.
• If doing too much work with elastic, consider buying specialty presser foot/machine attachment that applies elastic without having to stretch it by hand.

Yarns! Yarns! And Yarns!

Have you ever thought, why some of our clothing, say for example, scarves are sheer, soft and ornamental while others like shawls are thick, coarse and rough (though not all of them). This is because of the different yarns used for making them. Yarn formation is a fine skill and with variations in the spinning process, one can make various types of yarns. So what are the different types of yarns?

Single Yarns: To make these spun yarns, single strands of fibers are held together by twist. They are either given S-twist or Z-twist. Single yarns are used for making most of the fabrics.

Ply Yarns: Two or more strands or yarns are twisted together to make ply yarns. In two-ply yarns, two single strands are twisted together, and three-ply yarn is made up of three single strands and so on. The strands are generally twisted in one direction and then combined and twisted in opposite direction.

Cabled Yarns: Two or more plied yarns are twisted together, usually, around each other continually in the opposite direction of the previous twist. Thus, it may be twisted in an S/Z/S form or a Z/S/Z form These yarns are hard, rough and strong.

Doubled Yarns: In the weaving process, two or more strands are treated as one but they are not twisted together as when making ply yarns. Doubled yarns are used for giving ornamental effects due to their lustre and softness.
Novelty Yarns: For making novelty yarns, decorative effects are produced by giving different amounts of twists while spinning. Sometimes, yarns having different diameters are twisted together to make them. They are used for making ornamental fabrics having various textures and color combinations. There are many types of novelty yarn, each having difference in its making process. These novelty yarns include slub yarns, boucle yarns, spiral yarns, chenille yarns among others.

Ceramic Yarn- Clay's Journey From Pottery To Textile

You might have heard about ceramic art, ceramic pottery or bricks but have you heard about ceramic yarn? Yes, in fact, there is a yarn made of ceramic or clay which is used for making various textile products! These wonder ceramic fabrics are also used to protect NASA's space shuttles and satellites! They are incredibly strong, fireproof and excellent heat resistant fabrics.

Ceramic Yarn

Ceramic yarn is one of the man-made mineral fibers, popularly known as mineral wool. They are made from natural or synthetic minerals or metal oxides. Ceramic yarn is noted for its high temperature resistance above 1000°C. Textile made from ceramic fiber yarns have outstanding characteristics of lightweight, low thermal conductivity and chemical stability that can resist attack from most corrosive agents. The ceramic fiber yarns are used in high temperature sealing and in producing ceramic fiber tape, rope or fabrics. The ceramic fabrics are widely used in thermal insulation industry.

The Making of Ceramic Yarn
To make ceramic fibers, chemicals like silica are heated until they are molten, and then they are spun into hair-like strands. To make ceramic yarns, ceramic fibers are carded with a blend of organic fibers to make rovings. Rovings are soft strands of fiber that have been twisted, attenuated, and freed from foreign matters such as dust etc. before converting into yarn. Then a reinforcement of glass filament or steel wire is introduced to it. This combination is then spun to produce the ceramic yarns. In applications where tensile strength is significant, textiles manufactured from a glass filament reinforced yarn may be used up to 550ºC. Textiles manufactured from steel reinforced yarn may be used up to 1050°C. Where tensile strength is not so important, yarns and textiles may be used up to 1260ºC.


Industrial Applications of Ceramic Yarn Fabrics
Ceramic yarns and textiles are mainly applied to a wide range of high temperature sealing and insulating applications. It means that they are used in materials that come in contact of high temperatures so as to prevent or reduce the passage, transfer, or leakage of heat and electricity. A good example of this type of product is ceramic blankets. Ceramic fiber ropes are also used as heat insulation materials and a substitute for asbestos rope. NASA engineers had used ceramics for Shuttle tiles that could stand up to the heat of reentry. The fibers were used to fill gaps between orbiter tiles and were woven into insulation blankets, heat shields and other protective items.

General Uses of Ceramic Yarn Fabrics
Apart from being used in industries as insulating material, ceramic yarn is now also used for warm weather fashion clothing due to its cool nature. However, such fabrics have ceramic in very low percentage. For example, one of such ceramic fabrics is made up of 95% rayon & 5% ceramic. They keep the wearers cool and protect their skin from harmful UVA & UVB rays. They are, in fact, capable of dropping the surface skin temperature by at least 5 degrees. Due to their soft sheen, anti-static and washable qualities, they are gradually becoming a choice of fabric for babies & infant wear. Ceramic yarns are also fast becoming popular for knitting projects due to their same properties of being cool, soft and silky apart from UVA & UVB rays protective.

Drying Processes of Textile Industry

Textile drying is one of the finishing processes, which removes the water and moisture from the fabrics (accumulated while its manufacturing) through evaporative heating. As evaporative heating is very costly, initially mechanical methods are applied to remove as much as moisture from the fabric as possible. After that, heated dryers are used to evaporate the remaining water from the fabric. Mechanical methods include centrifugal extraction of water and continuous methods applying vacuum suction rolls. After mechanical extraction, various types of dryers are used to dry the textile which are categorized as thermal processes. The thermal processes transfer heat by convection; infrared radiation; direct contact; or radio-frequency.

Drying can be applied to loose fibers, yarns, or fabrics. When drying fibers, centrifugal extraction is done to reduce the water in loose fibers before evaporative drying is applied. The evaporation dryers consist of many chambers and fibers pass from the hottest to the cooler chambers. Fiber is carried through a conveyor belt or on the surface of a series of “suction drums”. Yarn packages are dried by two methods - rapid (forced) air drying and the radio frequency drying. In forced air dryers, hot air circulation is followed by conditioning. Radio frequency dryers operate on the conveyor principle. Fabrics are dried with various types of dryers like stenters, cylinder dryers, drying conveyors etc. The relaxed fabric is conveyed through a chamber while festooned in loops. The fabric travels through the chamber, passing over a series of hot cylinders. It is very important to dry textile without over drying otherwise the fabric may get a harsh hand.